I recently had a chance to participate in anagama wood firing in Blue Mountains. There were 5 of us in the group, and we each made and contributed work to fill the kiln.
We prepared wood a few weeks before the firing. And stacked it in the area near the kiln to make it easy to reach during the firing.
Loading the kiln took 5 days, it is that big!
Firing itself lasted 100 hours. We each had a shift and we had to stock the kiln every 15 minutes or so to keep the fire going.
After 100 ours we closed all openings and allowed the kiln to naturally cool down for a whole week.
The week after we unloaded the kiln and brought our treasures home.